Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services v. Angela H.

224 Cal. App. 4th 1088, 169 Cal. Rptr. 3d 265, 2014 WL 1047325, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 254
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 19, 2014
DocketNo. B248035
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 224 Cal. App. 4th 1088 (Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services v. Angela H.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services v. Angela H., 224 Cal. App. 4th 1088, 169 Cal. Rptr. 3d 265, 2014 WL 1047325, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 254 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Opinion

PERLUSS, P. J.

Describing the matter as “shocking to me, even after all of these years,” and “one of the worse cases I have seen, where there’s such sadism . . . and such disregard for a child’s feelings,” the experienced dependency bench officer in this proceeding sustained allegations under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivisions (a) (serious physical harm inflicted nonaccidentally) (two counts), (b) (failure or inability to protect) (five counts), (i) (cruelty) (two counts) and (j) (abuse of sibling) (three counts); declared then six-year-old Cristian I.1 and his eight-month-old sister Alice H. dependents of the juvenile court; removed the children from the care and custody of their mother, Angela H., and from Zachary H., Cristian’s stepfather and Alice’s father (Angela’s current husband); placed Cristian in Arizona with his presumed father, Mark I.; and ordered an expedited evaluation by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (Department) of possible placement of Alice with her maternal grandmother or great-grandmother. Reunification services for both Angela and Zachary were denied.

Without in any way challenging the overwhelming evidence of extreme physical abuse inflicted on Cristian by Zachary or attempting to defend her passive role in allowing Zachary to torture her son, Angela appeals from the [1092]*1092jurisdiction findings and disposition order, emphasizing Cristian had been the subject of a family law custody order in Arizona and arguing, even though she was the custodial parent and living with Zachary and Cristian in California, the juvenile court’s findings and order are void because the court failed to fully comply with the procedural requirements of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) (Earn. Code, § 3400 et seq.)2 after it had initially exercised temporary emergency jurisdiction to protect Cristian. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. The Arizona Custody Order, Angela’s Move to California and Mark’s Efforts to Enforce His Parenting/Visitation Rights

Cristian was bom in June 2006 in Tucson, Arizona. “Due to father [(Mark)] re-entering our child’s life,” in September 2009 Angela and Mark, who had never married, signed a memorandum of understanding/childcare plan following a successful mediation through the Family Center of the Conciliation Court, Arizona Superior Court in Pima County. A September 28, 2009 Arizona state court family law order granted Angela sole legal custody and primary physical custody of Cristian. Mark was granted visitation/ “parenting time” over various weekend periods and holidays.

Angela and Zachary married on September 30, 2011 after dating for approximately three years. According to Angela, she, Zachary and Cristian moved to California sometime in 2011 while she was pregnant with Alice (who was born in May 2012). Angela subsequently told one of the Department’s social workers she left Arizona after Cristian told her and Zachary that Mark and Mark’s father had sexually molested him.

Records submitted by the Department, however, reflect that Cristian had attended school in Tucson through Friday, March 16, 2012, immediately before the school’s one-week spring break. Mark reported he had gone to the school the following Friday, March 23, 2012, to pick up Cristian for the weekend, unaware the school was closed. (Mark stated Angela had confirmed he would be picking up Cristian on that Friday in his last conversation with her.) On March 24, 2012 Angela sent Mark a text message informing him she was traveling to California with Cristian. Mark, who had previously contacted the Tucson Police Department to report Angela’s interference with his visitation rights, filed a missing person report on April 10, 2012 with the Tucson police.

Following Cristian’s disappearance Mark initiated postjudgment proceedings in the Arizona family law case seeking full custody of his son. Angela [1093]*1093was served by publication. On September 11, 2012 the court found Angela had taken Cristian out of the state without notice to Mark in violation of Arizona law and ordered Angela to return Cristian to Arizona to permit Mark to exercise his parenting time with the child. A further hearing was set for November 19, 2012. The court directed Mark to personally serve Angela, whose address in California he now had, with notice of the hearing.

2. The Emergency Call Following Zachary’s Extreme Physical Abuse of Cristian

On September 15, 2012 Angela called the police emergency operator to report child abuse in progress. Responding officers were met at the door by Zachary, whom they detained, and found Cristian standing naked in the bathtub with cuts and bruises all over his face and body, including severe bruises on his genitals. Cristian told officers Zachary had tried to cut his penis off with scissors.

Both Cristian and Alice were immediately detained. Cristian was taken to the pediatric intensive care unit at Northridge Hospital Medical Center; Alice was placed in shelter care. At the hospital, where his injuries were extensively documented, Cristian explained Zachary had burned him “with a stick that had fire at the end” and cut his face using a drill gun. Cristian also reported Zachary had kept him locked in a closet for four months, only letting him out to use the bathroom, and made him smoke marijuana.

Zachary was arrested. While Los Angeles Police Officer Barrios was obtaining Zachary’s personal information, Zachary volunteered, “The boy is my step-son. His mom and I have him here together. We moved from Arizona where his father and grandfather were molesting him. Now I find out he is doing the same thing to my 4-month-old daughter. . . . There was blood in my daughter’s vagina and he was touching my wife while she slept. I lost it and hit him.” When Alice was subsequently examined, there were no signs of sexual abuse.

Los Angeles Police Officers Simmons and Palmer interviewed Angela at a parking lot shortly after she called the emergency operator. Holding Alice and crying hysterically, Angela said she and Zachary had left Tucson because Mark was sexually abusing Cristian. After Angela and Zachary got married about a year ago, Zachary became physically abusive, including beating her with his fists and choking her until she almost passed out. (Angela had bruises consistent with physical abuse.) Zachary also physically abused Cristian, who was continually covered from head to toe in old and new bruises, and the abuse was becoming increasingly more violent. Angela corroborated Cristian’s assertions he had been forced to live in a closet and [1094]*1094smoke marijuana.3 She did not send Cristian to school because she was afraid Mark would be able to track him down and get visitation. She did not report the abuse, much of which she had witnessed, because she did not want Zachary to get caught growing marijuana. Angela also told officers she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, chronic depression and manic depression.4

3. The Dependency Petition and Detention Hearing

On September 19, 2012 the Department initiated dependency proceedings on behalf of Cristian and Alice pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivisions (a) (serious physical harm), (b) (failure to protect), (d) (sexual abuse) and (i) (cruelty).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
224 Cal. App. 4th 1088, 169 Cal. Rptr. 3d 265, 2014 WL 1047325, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/los-angeles-county-department-of-children-family-services-v-angela-h-calctapp-2014.